MGG Pillai Commentary View

<< Previous || Next >>

When brute strength is an incurable weakness

THE ROYAL MALAYSIAN POLICE MARKED its 198th birthday on 25 March 2005. Why now and not its 200th in 2007 is not explained, but it was the "right" moment to tell Malaysians to respect the police or else. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, as the internal security minister, did not mince his words: It should be honoured, it does brilliant work in difficult circumstances, its stellar roll in public security and crime prevention is so crucial that young Malaysians, school-leavers and graduates, should regard a career in the police force as their first choice.

Why? A "noble" career in the police force "uphold(s) the law and ensure the peace of the country and security of the people", he said at the function. The police should not rest on its laurels: it should aspire to be a world class force. Money is not a problem: last year, the cabinet – not parliament – allotted RM740 million last year and another RM330 million in 2005, with more under the Ninth Malaysia Plan. But structures do not a good police force make. The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Mohamed Bakri Omar, wants policemen and women to imbibe "life-long" learning so the police can face the future with confidence. He is also grateful to the National Front (BN) government for its special interest in the police force.

What spoiled the homilies was the special attention, in radio, television and press reports, how policemen and women prevent riots and demonstrations. The words did not match the pictures. Neither the prime minister nor the IGP means what they say. Not when the speeches are accompanied by recruits with T-batons demonstrating to those assembled how they put down the demonstrators and justice seekers. There is a move for police on duty carry T-batons, and not the ordinary police batons, is now considered. The RMP's 198th birthday revealed not what Pak Lah and Tan Sri Bakri said but what they did not say.

The menace implied is clear. The Malaysian media peppered their reports with policemen as confronters of rioters and demonstrators. More than the words, that told the Malaysian the policeman is not there to help but to warn they would crack down hard if they should he stray from the officially ordered path. That is its role, to shut out anti-government dissent, not for what a police force is for. It has a bad record in crime prevention and solution, of refusing to issuing permits to opposition parties or to any group or political party the BN leaders are opposed to. Reporting a crime at a police station is as often as not an obstacle course that tries the patience of the most law abiding citizen. One shudders at having to go to the police station for even help.

It is worse after the events of 1998, in the aftermatch of the arrest, detention, humiliation of the then deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The police made it clear then any who opposed the BN, especially if they came out on the streets, would be treated with utmost severity. This remains the rule today. Last week, the police prevented Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) members from attending a function where a high ranking UMNO member, a former deputy to the Selangor mentri besar, was to join the party. It did not matter. The meeting had to be cancelled. But he joined anyway. Soon, two UMNO stalwarts in Pahang, including a former deputy to the mentri besar, will join the party. All the police ensured is more opprobirum for itself.

More is to come. The new deputy inspector-general of police, Dato' Seri Musa Hassan, is appointed to checkmate Dato' Seri Anwar, whose rising stature in Malaysian politics puts the UMNO-led BN in mortal fear of the next general elections, in theory in 2009 but likely to be held a year or even two earlier. Those bypassed are glad they were not chosen. Add to this, the 198th RMP anniversary, and the import is clear. As the government in panic or fear, or both, shut out legitimate dissent, and redress of it could only by breaking the law, riots and demonstrations is the natural end. Almost no one in government today could prevent this march into open dissent and worse.

No matter how well trained and neutral the police force, it will not amount to much if few non-Malays join it. A conscious policy after the 1969 racial riots not to recruit non-Malays and a glass ceiling if they do, a plodding rise to to that so his non-Malay juniors supercede him in a decade made certain that few would be recruited. The police force has become politically and racially partisan that it cannot function as a politice should. An all-Malay force in multiracial Malaysia coupled with its political focus as the private security force of the BN cannot reform without a revolution, or a reformation, from within in. It is too late for that. Any attempt to change the status quo is politically disastrous for the BN. In other words, there is no political will to reform. Nor to consult the opposition to how this impasse can be resolved. Instead, it opts for the strong arm. Which could not either.

The government says RM1 billion will be spent on the police force over five years. The cabinet decides on it, not parliament. The country goes through a financial crisis so severe that business men, UMNO members and others, caught between rhetoric and reality, are prepared to consider a new prime minister and UMNO president. That dissatisfaction and dissent spreads to all sections of the community cannot be lost on the government. But there is one danger. If only the police are treated with special care, when push comes to shove, other agencies of the government could well stand on the sidelines in a crunch. These piecemeal measures all in government to make a choice, with the official fear that not all would come on its side.

What makes it worse is the absence of political direction. Without it, the police cannot reform. The BN government allowed itself to drift over the past two-and-half decades, sustained its total control of parliament and the state assemblies, that it now believes it can do as it likes with none the wiser. But the drift is accentuated by the ground, especially the Malay and after 1998, that the government even ignores parliament, state assemblies and even the Constitution. This autocratic governance is now challenged from within, and a bigger threat to stability than riots and demonstration. Though not by much. The internal squabbles can no longer be secret. It often spills on to the media.

UMNO now wants to induct into its ranks children of its members. Where once this was automatic and by choice, today it is not. It cannot enforce it. It did not as usual think it through. It is chagrined its members' children join PKR, PAS and even DAP. But how can it enforce it? What would it do if he or she refuses? It is dangerous to assume that Malays or indeed anyone can be drafted into a political party, even UMNO. Especially when the only strong point UMNO has now is that it dominated Malaysian politics for six decades. The PRI dominated politics and held power Mexico since 1927, but seven decades on, it is a squabbling opposition party. The RMP can help the UMNO-led BN up to a point. A party to remain in power cannot drift. UMNO does, and must fall if it goes on as now. As happened in several countries in Central Asia, the latest in Kyzrghystan last week, even armed police is of no help when the people begin to march.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com